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"You're good at a lot of things, Steve, but you were never a spy." Got plenty of pointers, sure, but that's still different from living the SHIELD agent life for most of his. "Had to vanish for a bit. Last job went a little south. Too hot to handle after. Better now."

"Yeah, the super soldier upgrade didn't come with an espionage package. Maybe if we count the enhanced memory, but that's stretching several definitions to the breaking point." Just makes him a roving camera. "Come on, let's get inside somewhere. Work out a timeline here, maybe>"

He's only been trying to get that out of Clint since he laid eyes on him.

"Yeah, guess so. Wouldn't want you to miss any more of your sad people group therapy sessions than you have to."

No more meandering, then. The direct route. If there were any tails, well, he's pretty sure there aren't any now at least, so it should be safe enough to guide Steve to his little home away from home. It isn't much, but still in much nicer shape than the apartment.

"There are whales in the Hudson. The pollution drop's been great for wildlife." He's wryly self-depreciating as he says that. Please, please, let him miss some of those.

Also distracted by the... improvement? in the place Clint's picked out for himself. He really does feel less sharp and that's something that unwinds Steve just a little. Steadies Steve some.

Might not be as much space--there's no whole kitchen space, after all--but it doesn't look one bad day from being condemned. The bed's wider. The tv is even a full color flatscreen. That will show things in English. It's the little things.

"I'm sure a bunch of well-meaning ecologists are celebrating the drop in CO2 levels. Meanwhile, the poor still don't have enough food cuz it all gets hoarded by the rich neighborhoods, the rich countries instead of evenly distributed out. Same shit as before. Isn't humanity wonderful?"

Steve drops his backpack near the door - yes, he has his own room, here. He did not leave his shit in it, for a wide variety of reasons.

He snorts at the remark and sinks down to sit on the edge of the bed. "Don't make me try and untangle that one, Clint. I like more people than I don't. I care about humanity. I want the missing half back. I'm frustrated as shit that even this level of tragedy can't shake folks enough to do and be better and tired as hell of all of it."

Clint spreads his arms. "Why do you think I do what I do?" Besides needing an outlet for the pain. Obviously. "You'd think with half as many people, there wouldn't still be all this going on. But everyone collectively buried their heads in the sand and kept doing what they were already doing."

"Grief," Steve says, rather directly. "Anger. Frustration. Turning them into something at least passingly productive." Probably don't ask him questions that are meant to be rhetorical, he'll take them as an opening. "Same reason I'm giving inspirational talks at support groups." That and, you know, an overwhelming lack of trust in himself, albeit one that comes and goes.

"Just cuz you're right doesn't mean I don't get to say 'fuck you' about it," grumbled out, stamping down on the sudden flare of anger for having it pointed out.

"It doesn't," he agrees, almost smiling. It's probably a bad idea to look a little happy about it, but realizing Clint can be mad at him and Steve's not worried about it feels pretty good. "And if you're agreeing I'm right you can say the fuck part extra loud."

"I don't have to give you an extra key to my room, you know." Which has been considered, so they can come and go as they please. "But I'm also right. We can both be right, here."

"Yeah, we are." No denial on that and no loss of... warmth, either. "Just feels good to be able to be told to fuck off and still feel... like we're not about to break, you know?"

Probably not, he thinks.

An attempt was made, though.

"You're gonna know if we hit that point." At least, Clint is pretty sure. He can bury stuff down and then strike like a snake when he feels like it, but around Steve... "I'm not Stark."

No, because Stark can't keep his emotions to himself, can't keep his mouth shut, and lashes out at everyone the second he's so much as inconvenienced. It's not a good comparison.

Steve makes a low sound that's... amused, but in truth? He doesn't know if he wants to defend Tony in some half-ass way, or admit that he's got some pent up and fairly buried resentment toward the man. Some of it for Tony resenting him.

In the end he just kind of half shrugs. " I know you're not. I even feel like I'm gonna know before things go all to hell so I've got some shot of fixing it. That I wasn't feeling that last time's on me, not you, but it still feels good."

He glances at away from Clint and at the bed, notices he's... parked in the middle, and moves himself up to lean a shoulder against the headboard.

"It's...whatever." A shrug. "You feel it or you don't. You don't try to piss me off, normally, so." He watches Steve adjust and doesn't himself move.

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